An Abandoned Factory, Detroit
by Philip Levine
The gates are chained, the barbed-wire fencing stands,
An iron authority against the snow,
And this grey monument to common sense
Resists the weather. Fears of idle hands,
Of protest, men in league, and of the slow
Corrosion of their minds, still charge this fence.
Beyond, through broken windows one can see
Where the great presses paused between their strokes
And thus remain, in air suspended, caught
In the sure margin of eternity.
The cast-iron wheels have stopped; one counts the spokes
Which movement blurred, the struts inertia fought,
And estimates the loss of human power,
Experienced and slow, the loss of years,
The gradual decay of dignity.
Men lived within these foundries, hour by hour;
Nothing they forged outlived the rusted gears
Which might have served to grind their eulogy.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Far Within Us #5 by Vasko Popa
- Song—Blythe hae I been on yon hill by Robert Burns
- Dove in the Arch by Robert Desnos
- Владимир Британишский – По-польски вместо слова “светлячок”
- Gospel Music Inspires Body & Soul
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
- Hymn To Death by William Cullen Bryant
- Girl Child – An Alternate Reality by Rekha Seshadri
- The End poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Olney Hymn 48: Joy And Peace In Believing by William Cowper
- The Ghost by Sara Teasdale
- Of the Visage of Things. by Walt Whitman
- Artistic Soul Retold by Roberto Cocina
- Владимир Высоцкий – У Наполеона Ватерлоо есть хотя б
- Николай Гумилев – Они спустились до реки
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Philip Levine ( 1928 – 2015) was an American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for more than thirty years in the English department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2000 to 2006, and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012